Sympathy in Blood Brothers Essay

In the play 'Blood Brothers' Willy Russell makes it possible for the audience to sympathise with Mrs Lyons despite the dreadful deeds she does in the end.

The play is a story about twins who are separated at birth. One is kept with his original family and the other is brought up in wealthier surroundings. The boys end up meeting and becoming good friends. However, the adoptive mother thinks her son is going to find out that she is not his birth mother and fears he will leave her. This causes her to develop a mental illness that drives her to murdering both boys.

To a certain extent the author makes it possible for the audience to sympathise with Mrs Lyons. The most obvious reason is because Mrs Lyons has been expecting to have children but found out she was infertile meaning she cannot. She says,

"We bought such a large house for the children

we thought were goiny to come along"

I think Mrs Lyons must have been very disappointed when she found out she could not have babies. I believe she just longed for a child to mother. The audience know she is willing to adopt because she says, "an adoptive child can become one's own" but her husband seems to disagree. We know this because Mrs Lyon's says, "He says he always wanted his own son, not someone else's". This shows Mr Lyons is strongly against adoption and does not want Mrs Lyons to adopt a child. I understand why he says that but I think Mrs Lyons just needs some company. During a one on one chat with Mrs Johnston she says,

"The company sent him out for nine months"

This gives the impression that Mr Lyons is not around a lot. I believe that Mrs Lyons feels lonely and just deserately wants to love someone who will be there for her, unlike Mr Lyons who is away on business for long periods of time.

However, the main reason the audience sympathise with Mrs Lyons is because she has a mental breakdown. Her mental illness starts when she gets paranoid about Eddie playing with Mickey. She feels uncomfortable when she finds out. Mrs Lyons ends up hitting Eddie when he swears at her and says he likes Mickey more than the woman who brought him up. I think she was just worried about him finding out the truth. Then she begins to believe her own superstition she made up to scare Mrs Johnston. Mrs Lyons gets more and more paranoid about the twins becoming friends. She says,

"Edward. Edward, hoe would you like to move to another house?"

I believe Mrs Lyons was feelings very worried and scared that both boys will end up finding out the are brothers. I think Mrs Lyons feels that if Eddie does find out the truth he will leave her. Therefore she wants to move to the countryside hoping she will escape the Johnstons and decrease the risk of the boys finding out they are really brothers. The audience know her plan does not work when Mrs Lyons says,

"She's following...Wherever I go she will follow"

Her paranoia seems to be getting out of control in this scene. She truly believes Mrs Johnston is deliberately following her everywhere she goes. In my view I think that at this time Mrs Lyons regularly says comments like this because Eddie says,

"Shall I tell Daddy to telephone for the doctor?"

At this point the audience feel sympathetic for both Eddie and Mrs Lyons. It must have been terrible for a Eddie having to take care of his mother at such a young age. Also it must have been a sad time for Mrs Lyons having to cope with her mental illness. Mrs Lyons convinced herself Eddie was goiny to find out about his twin. She says,

"She's trying to make me tell you, Edward.

But I won't. I shan't kill you, Edward"

The audience realise here that Mrs Lyons' paranoia was getting out of hand because she starts to believe her own made-up superstition that she used to intimidate Mrs Johnston. Her son replys to her statement saying, "Good. Good". It must have been awful for Mrs Lyons when her son just agrees with her without even considering what she actually says. To sum up we feel sympathetic towards Mrs Lyons to a certain extent. She is unable to have her own children, she feels lonely and her husband is away on business a lot, her husband is against adoption and she develops a serious mental illness.

On the other hand there are certain times in the play when the audience do not feel sympathetic towards Mrs Lyons. The most obvious reason is that she pressurises Mrs Johnston. When she first finds out that Mrs Johnston is expecting twins she suggests she gives one to her. The audience realises she is really desperate when she says,

"Quickly, quickly, tell me when you're due?"